


Storm After the Calm

by ineedmysickfix



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Azu is lovely as always, Gen, Hamid's been through A Lot and needs to rest, Hurt/Comfort, Post Shoin defeat, Rated T for minor swearing, Set in Hiroshima, Sick Hamid, Sickfic, Zolf has low charisma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28118523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineedmysickfix/pseuds/ineedmysickfix
Summary: After defeating Shoin and getting a bit of down time, Zolf, Azu, and Hamid are sent on a simple mission to get some info from Wilde to an informant of his. Unfortunately, Hamid falls ill and has to deal with it and other obstacles before he has the chance to rest and recover.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	Storm After the Calm

After being locked in an anti-magic cell _for a Second time_ , defeating a…...brorb, and very reluctantly taking on a legion of kobolds, Hamid’s glad to hear that they’re being sent on an easy mission. Wilde tells him, Zolf, and Azu to meet in his office after dinner to run through the simple job.

“It shouldn’t be too difficult, just an exchange of files with an informant of mine while she’s in town is all.” Wilde says, sipping on a glass of what Hamid presumes is bourbon. “And though she isn’t _that_ dangerous, the area you’ll be traveling to is known to have pickpockets and the like so I want to send the three of you together for this.”

“Why not send Cel? They have enough explosives to take on an entire army if they wanted to. Plus they know how to speak Japanese in case they get lost or somethin’.” Zolf questions from his position leant up against the wall near the door.

“Oh, you’ll just be going toward the closest trading ports so knowing the language or getting lost shouldn’t be that much of an issue. And, hm, how should I put this?” Wilde swirls the alcohol around in his glass before taking another drink, “It’s not that I don’t trust them, I mean they did help us with taking down Shoin after all, but I just want to be…cautious. And I’ve worked with the three of you long enough to know that I could trust you to handle this.”

Hamid looks to Azu who turns to Zolf and tries to gauge his reaction. Zolf pinches the bridge of his nose at the sudden attention and pushes himself off the wall, “Alright, fine we’ll do it. It’s a straightforward enough job and we don’t have much else to do here so might as well.” Zolf strides over to Wilde’s desk and snatches up the envelope.

“Thank you, Zolf. And I presume that you two are okay with going along then?” Azu and Hamid nod. “Good, good. The address is written there on the envelope. I need you three to head out as soon as you can tomorrow morning. There isn’t a rush, but I thought you’d like to spend the rest of tomorrow relaxing after you’re done,” Wilde says with a smirk. 

Zolf scoffs but returns the smirk then turns to face Azu and Hamid, “Alright, you heard the man. Get some sleep. We’ll be up bright an’ early tomorrow so we can get this job over with.” With that, the three of them leave Wilde’s office and head off to their respective rooms.

* * *

Hamid does not sleep well and is reluctant to even get out of bed once he wakes up let alone go on today’s mission. The cold, damp outside air must’ve somehow slipped through into Hamid’s room at some point during the night because he is positively _freezing_. He struggles to bring the blanket higher up to his face, subtly using it to wipe at his nose. Feeling gross, he tries to sniff and not let his nose run too much but his breath gets caught in his throat, making him cough gratingly. The fit lasts for what feels like forever and leaves Hamid feeling lightheaded by the end of it.

He should probably let Wilde or Zolf know that he isn’t feeling well enough to go out today, but… _It shouldn’t be too difficult…..a straightforward enough job…..I could trust you to handle this…_ yesterday’s conversation rings in Hamid’s ears as he’s curled up in bed. They still trust him, even after disappearing into Rome for months. He really doesn’t want to let them down.

“Oi, Hamid! Wake up!” Zolf’s voice accompanied by knocking filters through the door. “Come on, get up so we can get this over with.” Reluctantly, Hamid leaves the comfort of his bed, deciding to drag the blanket along with him, and pads over to the door. Just outside, he sees Zolf waiting impatiently with his arms crossed. “Gods, finally. Azu and I have been up for the past hour waiting for you. I wanted to get you the second I got up but Azu just kept telling me to be patient so that you can get up naturally or something-”

“Um, Zolf,” Hamid’s voice is barely above the whisper but still manages to cut Zolf off. “I _-sniff-_ I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can go. I’m honestly not feeling very well and I think it’d be best if I stay here while you and Azu…” He trails off as Zolf’s eyebrows knit together. 

“Are you being serious?” Zolf uncrosses his arms and runs a hand down his plaited beard, “Look, I know you got those little kobolds running around doing your bidding now but that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to just laze about when you feel like it. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the world’s gone to shit and apparently it’s up to us to fix it so come on and get ready. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can come back.” Without another word, Zolf turns and leaves Hamid standing in the doorway.

“A-alright,” Hamid says to the open air. His aching body protests as he drags his feet over to the wardrobe and changes out of his nightgown and into his normal three piece ensemble. He’s sure he packed an extra thick cloak when they came here, it’ll probably help with how cold it’ll be on the walk into town. Throwing the heavy cloak over his shoulders with a flourish, Hamid closes the wardrobe and looks over himself in the mirror. His face falls when he takes in his tangled hair, pale complexion, flushed cheeks, and prominent eye bags.

He huffs, straightens his back, and produces a handkerchief with a flick of his wrist in order to prestidigitate himself into a more presentable manner. The familiar words form in his brain and flow past his lips easily, though his voice is a bit rougher than usual, and he can feel the magic start to coarse through his body. But halfway through the short incantation, a tickle in his nose breaks his concentration and causes him to stutter. Hamid sniffs once to stave it off but ends up making it worse...and worse...and worse until he ends up sneezing and ultimately ruining the spell. Without even thinking, Hamid uses the handkerchief in his hand to wipe at his damp nostrils. He pauses after blowing his nose, making an unhappy face before tossing it into a nearby hamper.

“Okay, _-sniff-_ let’s try this again.” But the second attempt at fixing his appearance yields the same results. As does the third, and fourth, and by the fifth attempt Hamid is too tired and annoyed to try for a sixth time. He sighs and looks back at his reflection, still as haggard and disheveled as it was before. Maybe some concealer and eyeliner could be enough.

After basically smearing the makeup onto his face, Hamid quickly exits his room to meet Azu and Zolf in the hotel lobby. Once there, Azu smiles and rises from her seat to greet him but gets cut off by Zolf, “Finally! Come on, let’s get this over with.” Hamid winces at the volume of Zolf’s voice but just nods and follows him and Azu out of the building.

The trek to their destination ends up not taking too long, probably 20 minutes tops once they reach the place where Wilde’s informant is staying. Zolf holds up the envelope and looks at Azu and Hamid, “You two wait here. Won’t be long.”

Azu nods and watches as Zolf disappears behind a curtain serving as a door then turns to look at Hamid. The walk over was fairly quiet apart from a few sniffles from Hamid and Azu just chalked it up to it being very early and the morning mist causing Hamid to sniffle. But as she looks down at her halfling friend, she can’t help but notice how much he’s shivering. “Hamid? Are you okay?” The question brings Hamid out of his daze and he looks up at Azu. “You look kind of, um, I mean, you seem tired and kind of...off?”

Hamid opens his mouth to respond but ends up smothering two curt sneezes into his shoulder. “Oh, s-sorry. _-sniff-_ I, um, I’m quite alright. Just woke up feeling a bit poorly is all, but I’ll be fine once we get back to the hotel.”

Azu furrows her brow and looks over Hamid once more. “Oh, I’m sorry about that. We’ll be done soon enough and once we get back I can make us some tea to warm you up. And I think the bakery in the lobby should be open by the time we get there so we can get some sweet pastries too.”

Hamid smiles and coughs lightly into his fist, “Sounds wonderful, thank you Azu.”

“Alright, got that over with,” Zolf says pushing aside the curtain and holding a new envelope, “Let’s get back so I can hand this off to Wilde and be done for the day.” Without waiting for an answer, Zolf walks off in the direction of the hotel.

Azu looks to Hamid and holds her hand out for him to take, “Come on, let’s get out of the cold.” Hamid smiles and takes her hand, glad to have a source of warmth.

The three walk in the same silence as before, only broken when Hamid coughs or smothers a sneeze into his cloak. Every time Hamid does so, Azu softly squeezes his hand and Zolf’s gaze shifts to him for a second before turning back ahead of him. After sneezing for the fourth time in five minutes, Zolf groans and turns to Hamid. “Would you stop that? Can’t you, I dunno, prestidigitate yourself up a handkerchief or something instead of using your clothes?”

“Oh looky here, got us some magic users don’t we?” A gruff, unfamiliar voice cuts through the heavy mist as the trio whip their heads around trying to find the source.

“Looks like we do.” A second voice joins the first as two cloaked figures emerge from the fog. “And judging by the fancy clothes on that one,” they say pointing at Hamid, “these fine folks probably have more money than they need on them.”

“Yeah. Maybe you three could hand off some money so no one has to get hurt,” The first cloaked figure says, producing a dagger.

Zolf, more annoyed than surprised, sighs exasperated, “Look, you two best be off or you’ll be the ones hurt.” He moves to ready his glaive but the one of the cloaked figures rushes at the group of mercenaries. “Alright, then. Suit yourself.”

Zolf swings his glaive at his attacker while Azu lets go of Hamid’s hand to go for the second with her axe. Sounds of metal against metal fill the empty air and intensify Hamid’s developing headache. He watches as Azu knocks out the attacker with a well timed punch. But a sudden yell brings Hamid’s attention to Zolf, now pinned on his back by the first attacker. Hamid panics and looks to Azu but she’s too far away to help, having been separated from the group during the fight. 

Hamid takes a calming breath, trying his hardest not to cough, and focuses his magic to produce a fireball. Warmth fills his chest as he begins the incantations and readies himself. He closes his eyes as magic runs through his veins, the sensation tickles his nose a bit. Hamid’s breath hitches as he feels a sneeze coming on but tries to push it down long enough to finish the spell. His eyes fly open and he feels the last words on his tongue but before he could finish, a harsh sneeze catches him off guard and sends a stream of fire out of his mouth. “Oh, _oh dear._ ”

The surge of flame rushes toward the hooded figure and Zolf who quickly rolls out of the way just in time for it to knock the attacker onto the ground. Zolf stands up and looks at Hamid, “Well, didn’t know you could do that. Thanks for the help, Hamid. But next time could you aim a bit farther away from me?”

“O-oh, um, _-sniff-_ s-sorry, Zolf. I-I don’t know what came over me.” The sudden loss of heat from the fire magic causes Hamid to shiver hard and he clutches his cloak around himself, “I-I meant to cast fireball but I _-sniff-_ I didn’t mean to do that.”

Hamid startles when he feels a weight on his shoulder and looks up to see a concerned Azu. “Let’s not worry about that now. We should get out of here before they wake up” she says, gesturing at the two knocked out attackers. “Are you okay, Hamid?”

“I, uh, I-I think I’m- heh...” Hamid’s breath catches in his throat as a familiar tickle finds its way in his nose. He quickly turns away to sneeze twice, both times producing small spouts of fire. “ _-sniff-_ Oh dear. S-sorry! I swear I didn’t mean to-”

“Best try to avoid sneezing, Hamid. Or at least aim away from us or anyone else if you can’t help it.” Zolf says quickly. “Now come on, like Azu said we should leave before these two come to.”

Azu frowns at Zolf’s dismissive manner but nods, taking Hamid’s hand once again as the group head back to the hotel. Hamid is tense, Azu can tell just from holding his hand. His other hand is holding a handkerchief that he must’ve produced at some point up to his nose. Quiet stifled sneezes are smothered by the handkerchief and each time Hamid’s eyes shoot to Zolf who is trying his hardest to keep walking.

* * *

Once the hotel is in sight, the three pick up the pace and don’t stop until they’re standing in the comfortably warm lobby. The second Hamid steps through the door he’s swarmed by the small group of kobolds from Shoin’s institute. _No Skraak, though,_ he notices. “Oh! Um, hello? What, um, _-sniff-_ what are you…?” Hamid looks over to his friends and winces at Zolf’s stern face. Dread and guilt fills his chest as he politely tries to get the kobolds to back off but when he pays more attention to them he picks up bits and pieces of their squabbling. “Ill?...Most likely he’s ill….think we have some remedies to help with…..No! That won’t work, we need to try…..”

“Oh hey, little buddy! How was the mission? You three took a bit longer than I thought you would! Would’ve figured you’d have wanted to get back as soon as possible.” Cel strides over to the group and chuckles at the kobolds’ antics but quickly frowns when they take in how distressed Hamid looks. “Um, is, uh, i-is everything alright?”

“Hamid’s sick and I guess his new kobold servants want to nurse him back to health.” Zolf quips, eyeing the group of kobolds as they continue to poke and prod at Hamid. 

“Zolf,” Zolf stiffens and looks up to see Azu glaring daggers at him. Her voice is curt and warning as she maintains hard eye contact, “Why don’t you go and make some breakfast. I’m sure Hamid will want something hot so perhaps soup?” She turns and looks over at the group of kobolds who stopped the second she started talking, “I’m going to take Hamid to his room. Could one of you fix up some tea for us please?” 

The kobolds look to Hamid then back to Azu before nodding and scrambling off. “Don’t worry,” Cel says, “I’ll keep an eye on them. I doubt you’ll want them to bother you too much while you rest right, little buddy?”

“Thank you, Cel,” Azu smiles as she takes Hamid’s hand again, looks once more at Zolf, who stands awkwardly in the middle of the lobby, and heads off to Hamid’s room. When Azu and Hamid finally reach his room, he quickly changes back into his nightgown and snuggles beneath his blankets. A knock at the door draws Azu’s attention and she opens the door to a kobold, _Draal_ Hamid notes, holding up a tea set. “Thank you, friend.” Azu says taking the set and quietly closing the door. 

She turns and places the tea on the nightstand next to Hamid’s bed. Another knock emanates from the door and outside is a different kobold, Meerk, holding a folded up cloth. They speak in draconic and hold up the cloth to Azu. She tilts her head in confusion and Hamid speaks up from his position in bed, “Um, they’re saying it’s some medicinal herbs. They swear that it’s a cure all.” Meerk pushes past Azu and places the cloth onto Hamid’s lap. They unfold it to reveal chunks of cut up onion and dried leaves and look at Hamid expectedly, “Um, th-thank you, Meerk! I’ll be sure to use it.” Meerk smiles and makes their way out of the room.

Azu laughs as Hamid rewraps the “cure all”, muttering about how he’d even be able to use them, and places it to the side. “Well that was rather sweet of them.” She pulls a chair up next to the bed, sits down, and pours the two of them some tea. They sit in comfortable silence as they sip their tea, only interrupted when Hamid has to prestidigitate up a handkerchief when his nose starts running more. 

Hamid is warm and comfy in bed and feels ready to go back to sleep when there’s a knock at the door. Before Azu could get up, Zolf carefully opens the door holding a tray of food. He sheepishly looks at Azu and Hamid as he steps into the room, “Um, hey, Hamid. I made you some soup and I had a bit of free time so I made some biscuits. And, uh, I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to be so harsh, I guess I was just tired and….Hamid?”

Azu turns her head to see streams of tears flowing down Hamid’s face as he presses the handkerchief up to his mouth, muffling his quiet whimpers. Zolf quickly puts the tray down at the foot of the bed and looks to Azu for some help. “I, uh, I’m sorry? Do you not like the biscuits? I could take them back if you don’t want- oof!” Hamid launches himself at Zolf and pulls him into a hug, sobbing quietly into his shoulder. “Um, there there?” Azu chuckles and watches as Zolf awkwardly pats Hamid’s back. 

* * *

Eventually, Hamid tucks into his soup and is left to get some more sleep once he finishes. He settles down in bed and closes his eyes, grateful that the combination of hot tea and steaming soup helped clear his sinuses. Sleep comes easily to Hamid and he hopes that this illness won’t last too long.

As Hamid sleeps, his dreams fill with twisted, warped versions of his memories. _He, Zolf, and Sasha are back on the boat in the middle of the stormy sea. Sasha falls overboard and Zolf dives in after her, but after what feels like a lifetime they still don’t resurface. Suddenly he’s in Rome, flames consuming him as he fights against a bloke….or is that a lad? Then he’s at the opera house in Prague. He’s standing on the stage as he watches Bertie and Aziza’s lifeless bodies drop onto the floor, the wilting bouquet in his hands drop and turn to dust._

He can hear humming. It’s soft and the tune is unfamiliar but it’s comforting nonetheless. Memories from childhood of his older sisters caring for him and humming in a similar fashion while he was ill flash behind Hamid’s closed eyes. “A-Aziza?” The humming stops and Hamid opens his eyes, met with Wilde sitting on the chair next to the bed.

Wilde looks up, stopping his scribbling on some paperwork, and he smiles sadly. “Go back to sleep, Hamid.” One hand resumes writing while the other reaches over and brushes back some hair plastered to Hamid’s forehead. Hamid nods sleepily and complies, dropping back off into sleep.

* * *

The next time Hamid wakes, his room is dark and he isn’t as cold as he felt before. He tries to shift around in bed but finds that he can’t move. Panic fills his chest and his eyes fly open, frantically looking around the room. “Quit squirming or I’ll make you stop.” Skraak’s voice cuts through the darkness.

“What? Skraak?” Hamid’s eyes take a minute to focus in the dark but once he can see, he finds himself in the middle of a pile of kobolds. He looks around confused and instantly makes eye contact with Skraak. “What’s going on?”

“You didn’t use the medicine Meerk gave you earlier.” Skraak says bluntly. “The others were worried about you, so, you know.” He raises a claw and gestures to the cuddle pile.

“Oh….thank you, Skraak.” Hamid smiles and nuzzles against the kobold closest to him which turns out to be Sassra.

“This doesn’t mean I’m still not watching you.” With that, Skraak turns over and settles down.

Hamid nods and closes his eyes. The sounds of the kobolds steady breathing lulls Hamid back into a peaceful sleep, where he dreams of home where his family and friends can relax and enjoy themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> "A kobold cuddle pile is scientifically proven to help regulate a fever," Cel says from where they and Azu are watching from the doorway.
> 
> I noticed a lack of sickfics in the rqg fandom and wanted to fix that lol. Shout out to my friend for brainstorming a ton of awesome prompts and encouraging me to write this, you know who you are ;) Let me know what you think! <3


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